Sara Graefe moved into her single-family home on East 10th seven years ago because it was her kind of neighbourhood.

Her street was a bike route. She liked the big mature trees that threw a canopy over the neighbourhood’s modest homes. She was a block away from a SkyTrain station.

It suited her politically, too. Graefe and her same-sex partner felt the eastside would be more accepting of them and their young son. The street on the northern border of Kensington-Cedar Cottage, was a good fit for them

Graefe, in her words, “ardently supported” Mayor Gregor Robertson and Vision Vancouver in the last two civic elections. She readily put up Vision Vancouver signs on her front lawn. So did her neighbours. The area was a Vision bastion.

But that could change.

Last month, the City unveiled a preliminary version of the official community plan for Grandview-Woodland, the neighbourhood just north of Graefe’s. The plan called for significant densification, notably commercial towers along East Hastings and around the SkyTrain nexus at Commercial and Broadway. Those towers were last-minute additions to the plan and came as a complete surprise to residents.

Uproar followed shock. None of the residents or businesses in the area wanted the towers, and at a neighbourhood meeting in early July, several hundred of them let councillors Geoff Meggs and Andrea Reimer know they were ... I believe the correct word is pissed.

Here, in the heart of Vision territory, you pull this surprise on us? One that would completely alter the nature of our neighbourhood?

Robertson did not attend.

In the days that followed, Robertson and council backed away from the tower idea, and promised residents they were a no-go. But there was no guarantee that plans for densification in some form won’t go ahead, and residents were still worried.

This included Graefe and her neighbours, who, even though they are just outside of Grandview-Woodland, understand that East 10th may be rezoned to accommodate six-storey apartment/condo buildings near the SkyTrain station. This would include Graefe’s block.

“Everybody on this street is really upset. We have a mix of renters and owners on the street, and we have block parties from time to time, and we had one in June soon after the news of this broke. And there was a lot of anger expressed. People are organizing.”

That organizing includes a pamphlet a neighbour put out about the proposed changes, with a link to a petition the Grandview-Woodland Area Council has started at change.org/en-CA/petitions/city-council-needs-to-listen-to-the-residents.

“I think, depending how it goes down, it will affect my support (of Vision). ... I’m disappointed in (Robertson). This is a tipping point for me. I guess it could go either way right now for me.

“If down the road, there’s additional consultations and they have open houses where they actually listen to the feedback ... then there’s a chance of him redeeming himself. But if it proves to be just an exercise in consultation — which is my fear and the fear of many of my neighbours — then I think we’re done.”

This is not the only neighbourhood to complain about the city planners’ insensitivity to local input. Marpole residents rose in revolt when plans for densified “thin streets” were unveiled — plans the city also withdrew. Yaletown, West End and Mt. Pleasant residents have all complained about plans for towers and increased densification in their areas.

And on the west side — well, my mailbox never filled up so fast with angry emails when I wrote a couple of columns supporting the city’s plans for a partial road closure and a dedicated bike lane down Point Grey Road.

The question now is, who hasn’t Vision and the city’s planners angered in the past year?

Robertson, for the most part, has held himself above these frays. He’s been very little in the news lately — perhaps because, unlike some other Canadian mayors, he hasn’t been indicted for a crime. But he seems absent, and willing to send his foot soldiers out to deal with the angry mobs.

When asked about those towers in the Grandview-Woodland plan, which he admitted were design “clangers,” he told me he didn’t know who included them or why they were there — which suggests to me he should be riding herd a little more closely on his planning department, since it has been doing such a good job of undermining his and Vision’s popularity. But Robertson was unapologetic.

“I don’t shy away from moving along with commitments I made and was elected on in 2008 and 2011,” he said. “And primary to that is housing affordability, and making sure people can live and move around the city affordably.

“People are arriving here whether we like it or not, so those of us who live here ... are under increasing pressure. And that’s the way of the world.

“We’re not going to pull up the drawbridge and seal off Vancouver. That’s not realistic. We’ve got to deal with growth that comes our way and shape it ... and that’s really tough to do when you’re the most livable city in the world.”

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